The SitePoint Forums have moved.

You can now find them here.
This forum is now closed to new posts, but you can browse existing content.
You can find out more information about the move and how to open a new account (if necessary) here.
If you get stuck you can get support by emailing forums@sitepoint.com

If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Maybe you've read some things about it, but for those who don't I'll give a short summary:

Maggots can be used to eat dead tissue, which shortens the time it takes for a wound to heal. It can even prevent the amputation of limbs since it's a very effective way to clean a wound.
Worms and leeches can be used for about the same purposes. Leeches stimulate the forming of new veines in growing and recovering tissue. Worms can cure inflammations within someone's body.

I knew about the maggots and leeches. Leeches are very good for micro-surgery, also they are being investigated for new anti-coagulants to combat some heart disease. Maggots are good because they only eat necrotic tissue leaving a healthy wound behind.

Disclaimer: This is gross and disgusting.. Stop Reading if you might be offended.

My brother works as an EMT for the nation's largest Ambulance company. He works in Los Angeles County.

One day, his and partner and him respond to this call. The patient is in the upstairs bedroom. As they entered the residence, they smelt rotting meat. As they tried to go up the stairs it became overpowering. At this point they thought they were dealing with a dead body. They left the residence and returned to their van. Being in Los Angeles, each EMT is issued a custom form fitting gas mask with microfilters. This is to prevent them from succumbing to biological or chemical terrorist attacks. They proceeded to put on their masks and add new filters. Again they made the trek up the stairs. Mind you this has taken about 10 minutes. As they entered the room they saw a man sitting there, very much alive. His right leg was this greenish-blue color and the skin looked like rawhide. This "gentleman" was also the source of the smell previously encountered. The right leg was severely swollen and measured 24 inches in diameter. There were holes in the flesh and you could see the bone. My brother also noticed that the infection had passed on to the left leg and crotch area. While performing their initial diagnostics, the two EMT's noticed the skin rippling on the right leg. After my brother touched the skin at that point with his finger, the skin broke and maggots and worms started falling out of his leg. Since the initial diagnostics were done, my brother and his partner proceded to inform the patient they need more equipment, ran downstairs and puked for 10 minutes. After cleaning themselves up they, went up and begin to transport the patient to the Hospital. When the patient was asked why he didn't see a doctor sooner, his response was "I didn't want them to cut off my leg". After emergency surgery, he lost both legs, had reconstructive surgery to his crotch area and 28 pounds of worms, maggots and various other parasites were removed from within his body.

It seems the man was suffering from gangrene due to poor hygiene. He almost lost his life due to this.

But, no matter how nasty this all may sound, please keep in mind that maggots are life savers. When they're properly used (ie in a clean environment, like a hospital) those funny creatures clean the wound better than we could have done with any other methode.
What's worse: the use of maggots in a huge wound in your leg, which will make it heal within two months or a regular cure with antibiotics and manually cleaning of the wound so that you'll be in hospital for more than three months with a lot of inflammations and other fun...

For the record: maggots eat only dead tissue and the bacteria in the wound. It has no effect on the surrounding (healthy) tissue, except that it can grow again.

Another nice thing of a cure with maggots: it's cheap.
250 maggots cost only $50 (estimated) so it's cheaper than a cure with antibiotics.

BTW in India, people use a fish to clean wounds. I don't know how this fish is called in English, but in Latin it's Macropodus opercularis. Those fish eat the dead tissue, just like maggots do.

but he put it in a tissue but he realized that it was sorta moving. He looked closer and little worms came out of it! (btw..my house is clean! )

It was a blue bottle, right? Their maggots hatch inside and they sort of give birth to them like the tsetse fly (propably misspelled).

Oh ueah and have you guys heard about the "wart biting grasshoppers"? They were used to remove warts. They are quite agressive and have very powerful jaws whitch they chew off the warts. Their saliva contains a specail chemical whitch actually kills off the warts. Not to nice but probably just as affective as getting the warts freezed at the doctor.

Some natives use army ants as stitches when they have an open wound. They pick up an ant and let's it bite on each site of the wound. The jaws pierce the surrounding skin and they keep holding on like a pitbull. Then they twist off the body and let the head stay until the wound has healed. The ants body liquid makes the wound heal faster and disinfects the wound.

There are so many natural cures that we could use. But many people don't believe in it or are just too scared of it.